Genesis 3:3
“but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, … lest you die.’”
The 1999 film “The Sixth Sense” gave rise to the catchphrase “I see dead people.” In this movie, a 9-year-old boy claims to see and talk to dead people who are unaware that they are dead. Most (if not all) viewers gasped wide-mouthed at the stunning twist at the end when (spoiler alert) one character realized that he was dead all along! In reality, in this world, physically dead people are incapable of realizing that they are dead. The same is true in the spiritual realm.
The title of this reflection is not a shout-out to a popular TV show but a sad description of the true spiritual condition of many people. In iStudyEBS Genesis Lesson 3, question 14c, we were asked, “How did Adam’s sin affect not only himself but the world?” Romans 5:12 provides us with the answer.
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…”
We live in a world of the walking dead. There are people everywhere who are unaware of their spiritually dead existence. However, there is good news. The truth we see in Scripture is that the walking dead can come to life only by God’s grace and His supernatural work of salvation. And for those of us who have been given the free and undeserved gift of life, we should not look at the walking dead with smug indifference but with compassion. Besides, unlike the movie or the TV series, we cannot always tell who the walking dead are.
Remember, when God breathed eternal life into us, we were not drowning in our sins and flailing our hands, asking for Him to throw us the lifebuoy of the Gospel. Dead people do not ask for help and CANNOT ask for help. We were dead. (I cannot overemphasize this — dead people cannot drown, much less flail their hands about.). When God brings dead people to life, He supernaturally breathes Christ’s life into them. He did not resuscitate them — He gave them new life.
Do you still think the Gospel of Christ is a lifebuoy thrown to bad people to keep them from dying? Meditate on God’s word. Only God’s Living Word can make the walking dead realize their true condition.
And, if I have the new life in Christ, how can I live the life of Christ and say as Paul says in Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Lesson reflection on Genesis 3, iStudy Lesson 3
October 2021
